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anti motivational message

Aug 3rd, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
4 comments

There is far too much bullshit on the Internet.

Too many of you assholes see something on the internet and think, “HEY! I can do that too! I’m gonna be fucking rich!”.

No, you can’t. And no, you’re not.

Just give up now before you litter my precious Internet with your crap. And before you start saying “but my idea is new and better and different”, just stop right there. It’s not new. There is nothing new. It’s all been done already. Yes, all of it. And it’s not better. It’s not even as good. Someone better looking, with more money and more time already did it. An no one wants different. We say we do, bit we’re lying. If you make something different, that just means it sucks that much more.

Save us all the trouble. Don’t clutter the Internet with your crap. Just give up now and go back to eating Cheetos and playing “Left For Dead” on an XBox that you didn’t and could never have invented.

a schedule

Apr 14th, 2008
by Jim Reverend.
5 comments

Despite the ever decreasing amounts of free time I have these days (it was bad even before the baby) I feel compelled to force myself to continue to create and explore. I think a forced schedule is the best way to accomplish this. While it doesn’t produce outstanding results every day, forcing myself to produce something — anything — often leads to more creativity, more streamlining of work, and, in the end, better work and more of it.

My Self Portrait Project is a good example of how well this works. In that two week span, I produced an image almost every single day. At least half of them are among my most popular images. Of course the other half are pretty trite and uninspired. The two sort of go hand-in-hand.

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seeking: stark raving lunatics

Apr 4th, 2008
by Jim Reverend.
9 comments

After reading Where are all the goddam photos, something in my head clicked. Not that photographers need a new way of doing things — I’d figured that out already — but that I wasn’t the only one in this same situation trying to do this same damn thing.

Every day I see Photographers making it big. And every day I see photographers loving the craft, doing what they can, and not even trying to make it. But I didn’t realize how many people there are out there in my exact same situation. And most of them aren’t photographers.

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inspired

Apr 1st, 2008
by Jim Reverend.
4 comments

(NOTE: Many of the links you find in this post will lead to images that are potentially Not Safe For Work. The post itself is safe the links in it may not be. That being said, I do not believe any of this to be offensive, pornographic, or even overly sexual.)

Scott Church (scottchurch@LJ, The Art of Scott Church) recently visited Dallas. In fact, I think he may even still be here. While our photographic styles and subject matter are most often quite different I find much of his work to be an inspiration. And, from time to time I see a photograph of his that strikes me as something I’d enjoy creating.

One of the first photos he posted taken in Dallas, a candid really, I find incredibly inspiring. A woman wearing pants and an unzipped long sleeve shirt, topless underneath, applies paint by hand to a large canvas propped against the wall of what appears to be a kitchen. In the foreground is a topless toddler with paint spread accidentally on her pants and stomach. A portion of a table is visible left in the frame, and under it is an errant juice cup. From this topless painter to her, presumably, topless daughter, to the juice cup rolled under the table — this image reaches out to me. I feel like I belong here, in this warm, open, family.

Later, he publishes another incredible image. It is a moody, monochromatic image of a young woman in front of an abandoned, wooden walled building. The out-of-focus foreground grasses, darkened sky, and blurred hair give a fleeting feeling of movement, with two bare-branched trees framing the whole scene. Again I feel like I am there. I feel like I am breathing this moment in. Despite the uninvited feeling an abandoned building and thoughts of trespassing can bring, this image makes me feel as though I am very much invited and a big part of this single slice in time.

This work is yet one of many things that inspire me.

I’m driven to create more, experience more, build more, dream more, and share more, despite the obstacles that constantly present themselves. And I’m inspired to bring as many beautiful people as I can along with me for the journey — as subjects, as fans, as patrons, as co-conspirators.

Thank you to Scott Church, and others like him, who continue to dream, and create, and share with me. And thank you — all of you — for being a part of this with me.

Of course, Scott’s Journey ended in a bit of trouble with the law. Hopefully they won’t be too hard on him. If they saw these images the way I do, they’d have let him go without a second thought. (Ha. April Fools!)

this and that

Jan 23rd, 2008
by Jim Reverend.
No comments yet

In the three minutes that I have before I need to start getting ready for work, I offer the following gibberish.

My Group DITL photos are almost ready. I’ve got them narrowed down to 109 so far, plus a couple from each of two photo events. It either needs to be closer to 50 or really exciting to keep interest. So… I’m getting there. It was a huge success and tons of you did it which makes me very happy. On Saturday-ish I’ll have a nice post with all the participants and awards and such.

I’ve decided I need to limit what I plan to get done each day. As it stands now, I find myself looking back at each day and seeing that I either worked myself to exhaustion with little to no time for anything personal (the baby, my wife, e-mail, photos, etc), or, that I was so overwhelmed with what I had to do that I did nearly nothing at all — watched TV, did a few chores in the most mediocre of fashions, etc. So, in the effort of trying something new, I’m just going to pick a handful of things for each of several categories to do each day and completely push everything else out of my mind. If I find myself less frantic this way, then I’ll start making a list of all the things I didn’t get done so that I can choose a bit more wisely on future days.

Celeste will be a month old this Saturday. A MONTH OLD! Time flies.

My sister-in-law was in a pretty bad accident this past weekend. She is at home and doing better now but it has happened at a very difficult time for her and my brother which certainly doesn’t help. If you believe in such things, please send your good thoughts, prayers, and energy their way. It’d mean a lot to me.

A good friend of ours had their first boy of four children last Saturday. He was a VBAC and born happy and healthy at 1:02pm on Saturday. We are very happy for them and are filled with hope for our next child.

Today (1/23/08) is a DITL Day in the DITL LiveJournal Community. Since I won last week’s (woo hoo!) I can’t win this week, but I wasn’t doing it to win anyway. I just find it fun to do and fascinating to look at.

The 3 minutes I had has turned into 18. I really need to shower and get to work. More later…

Group DITL?

Jan 14th, 2008
by Jim Reverend.
No comments yet

After posting the photos from the “Day in the Life” project I did last Friday, a few people have expressed interest in doing so as well as a group effort.

The idea is that all participants would document the same day in their lives through photography. Then, over the following week or so, everyone will share the results of this effort. There are several groups on the Internet doing this already — in particular, the DITL LiveJournal Group (their next DITL day is tomorrow, BTW) and several groups on Flickr (most of which don’t seem incredibly active). However, there’s always room for improvement and localization.

In this case, at least at first, I’d like to try to arrange some sort of group event to occur on the same day. That way we’d all be photographing our lives and then, at some point, those lives would come together and then, later, separate again. I’m aiming for either this Saturday (the 19th) or the next (the 26th). I’m thinking I should either try to arrange something to do (picnic, movie outing, dinner, walk around the lake, party, etc). Or, perhaps I should just encourage you all to get together with one another that day by having some silly awards for the person who has the most photographs of other people taking photographs from that same day. Something like that.

So, what do you think? Any ideas? Would you like to participate? Let me know.

JPGMag Submission: surroundings

Dec 19th, 2007
by Jim Reverend.
No comments yet
unused railway (edition 4)

I’ve decided to enter my first JPG Magazine Submission in the “Surroundings” category. I’d be honored if you’d take the time to go vote for it.

First the image: You might remember seeing a similar image from me in the past. In fact, that image is one of my most popular on Flickr. I had to edit it again in order to submit it to JPG Magazine because of their photo requirements. They don’t allow extensive editing and that particular photo was a blending of three images taken at different exposure levels with heavy use of masking in Photoshop. The version you see above uses only levels and curves adjustment, some color balance correction, and a bit of sharpening and everything you see comes from the same source image instead of taking parts from three different places.

Finally, JPG Magazine: I’ve know about it for several years and I’m still not sure if I think it’s a good thing or a blah thing but I’ve decided that it’s not an evil thing, and, therefore, worth trying. So this is my first submission. Accepted works get a 1yr subscription to the magazine and $100. In this category, select images will get win a $600 5MP camera phone. It’s not a whole lot but, then again, submitting isn’t really about making money.

So, once again, if you’re so inclined, I’d really appreciate a quick visit and your vote for unused railway at JPG Magazine.

Thanks.

A need for something new

Dec 15th, 2007
by Jim Reverend.
No comments yet

It was almost exactly one year ago that I started a project attempting to photograph myself and share the results once daily. The time constraints of this, some kind of life, and a 50+ hour work week made it impossible to continue. I discussed ways of keeping it alive and then eventually ended it.

A need for something new

However, while it lasted it made me feel great. I felt accomplished, and creative, and alive. Sure, there were moments of frustration and difficulty and not every image was a visual success. But, in some small way, every image helped me to grow. 7 of these 12 images remain amongst my most regarded images on Flickr and I have a hard time believing its because of my choice in models.

My point is, I need a new project.

Part of the problem with the above project was that one of the requirements was that I be the subject. It’s difficult enough to plan an image, prepare any needed materials, travel to a location, setup the shot, make photographs, clean up, get home, edit the photos, and then publish an image all in one day. Throwing me in as required subject matter and making me play both photographer and model only adds to the complexity. It’s not that I can’t photograph myself once a day. That’s easy and certainly fruitful for a self-study or an adventure in amateur photography. But photographing myself in a new and interesting way every day becomes a bit more of challenge.

So I’m working on cooking something up. Something that will require daily work but not daily results. Something that will allow me to be the subject when needed but not as a constant requirement. Something that will enforce deadlines, but not without giving me a little room to breathe, work, and live.

I’m all for ideas, if you have any.

The Job Hunt

Jun 12th, 2007
by Jim Reverend.
No comments yet

I am currently in the market for a job in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. If you or your company have any openings that would suit me, please contact me.

Here is a brief summary of my qualifications:

* 10+ Years Web Development Experience. Familiar with all of the leading technologies including AJAX, RSS, OpenID, PHP, Ruby, CSS, HTML and much more.
* 10+ Years UNIX System Administration Experience. Well versed in most leading technologies including Linux, Apache, MySQL, Postfix, Exim, Asterisk, Bind, DHCP, SMTP, VoIP, and HTTP.
* 10+ Years Database Architect Experience. Very familiar with MySQL and SQLite. Moderately familiar with Informix and SQLServer. Somewhat familiar with Oracle.
* 7+ Years Application Development Experience beginning with research gathering and design, through implementation, and concluding with rollout and support.
* 2+ Years Project Management Experience, beginning with project definition, through implementation and reporting, and concluding with follow-up processes.
* 8+ Years Photographic experience including film-based photography, film development, digital photography, photo editing, and post production. Fluent in Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photo Paint, Adobe Lightroom, and various digital asset management applications like Adobe Bridge, iView, and IDIimager. Experience in landscape, portrait, and product photography. Experience with studio lighting and location based lighting techniques and equipment. Portfolio available upon request.
* Ample Training Experience teaching classes with greater than 30 attendants.
* Limited Management Experience leading a small team of Application Developers.
* 10+ Years of Experience working at a leading Telecommunications company. Authored methods and procedures and maintained primary provisioning and inventory systems for translations design, special circuit provisioning, and fiber optic media technology. Acted in a supporting role for a customer facing internal organization. Saved over $150 mil in costs by developing and supporting a process to recover lost revenue in existing plant. Acted as liason between IT department and various internal organizations.
* Very fluent in all the latest technology trends including Voice over IP, bluetooth, blogging, video blogging, podcasting, and social networking.
* Excellent customer service skills.
* Outstanding follow-up skills.

Thank you for your time.

VFXY Photos v2

Feb 16th, 2007
by Jim Reverend.
No comments yet

I absolutely LOVE the new VFXY Photos interface. It’s as good, if not better, than Flickr’s interface, yet allows photographers to host their photographs from their own sites using their own software. It’s easy to browse new and interesting images, and bookmark your favorites so you can find them again later. It also makes it very easy for you to provide photographers with quick and simple feedback in the form of “favorites” and “ratings”.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out.

My photoblog, Arranging Light, is listed there (VFXY Profile) as are thousands of other outstanding photographers.

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